Karl Marx: A Biography

LONDON 211

which eventually found its way to the British Foreign Office via the

British Ambassador in Berlin:

One of the German Societies under Marx, Wolff, Engels, Vidil, meets

at No. 20 Great Windmill Street on the first storey. It is divided again

into three Sections. The Society B, is the most violent. The murder of

Princes is formally taught and discussed in it. At a meeting held the

day before yesterday at which I assisted and over which Wolff and

Marx presided, I heard one of the Orators call out 'The Moon Calf

will likewise not escape its destiny. The English Steel Wares are the

best, the axes cut particularly sharp here, and the guillotine awaits

every Crowned Head.' Thus the murder of the Queen of England is

proclaimed by Germans a few hundred yards only from Buckingham

Palace. The secret committee is divided again into two Sections, the

one composed of the Leaders and the other of the so-called 'Blindmen'

who are from 18 to 20 in number and are men of great daring and

courage. They are not to take part in disturbances, but are reserved for

great occasions and principally for the murder of Princes.^10

That this report is remarkable chiefly for the imaginative capacities of
its author is shown by the surviving minutes of such meetings.
In general the refugees were ignored by the British Government. In
March 1851 , for example, the Prussian Minister of the Interior pressed
for a joint approach with Austria and Prussia to the British Government
for 'decisive measures against the chief revolutionaries known by name'
and for 'rendering them innocuous by transportation to the colonies'.^11
The previous year the Austrian ambassador had already raised the question
with Sir George Grey, the British Home Secretary, pointing out that 'the
members of the Communist League, whose leaders were Marx, Engels,
Bauer and Wolff, discussed even regicide', but got the reply: 'under our
laws, mere discussion of regicide, so long as it does not concern the
Queen of England and so long as there is no definite plan, does not
constitute sufficient grounds for the arrest of the conspirators'.^12 The
most the Home Office was prepared to do in answer to these demands
was to give financial assistance to those refugees wishing to emigrate to
the United States.^13
Although when still in Cologne Marx had rejected the advances of the
London Central Committee of the Communist League (resurrected by
Schapper and Moll early in 1849), he now began to devote great energy
to the League's work. It is not entirely clear how Marx became a member
of the Central Committee: official election is unlikely; probably he was
co-opted by Bauer and Eccarius as later were Engels and Willich. At any
rate he attended its fortnightly meetings and eventually became its Presi-
dent. The League had been far from inactive during 1849 , although the